Earthworms and other invertebrates make up a significant portion of the American Robin’s summer diet. However since invertebrates become more difficult to for the birds to find during fall and winter, how to these familiar backyards birds cope with the scarcity of these important foods?

       The answer is they change their diet.  This begins to take place late summer.  By winter, fruits and berries comprise 80 percent of the birds’ diet.  Here is a list of some of the native plants that bear fruits or berries eaten by American Robins during the coldest months of the year:  possumhaw, American holly, flowering dogwood, winged sumac, American beautyberry, pokeberry, sassafras, poison ivy, and viburnum.

       If you have been wondering why you do not see many robins in your yard during the fall and winter, it could not many of these plants grow on your property.  If that proves to be the case, some of the plants mentioned above might work well in your landscape.  If they do, some of them to your backyard plant community.